Rasgulla

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be able to make Rasgulla at home! I had this perception that this was a very complicated sweet to make and to be fair I had never see anyone make Rasgullas at home until my friend Madhu worked her magic!!

Oh.. that soft spongy Rasgullas that just melt in your mouth and disappear in minutes. I actually ended up eating over 20 Rasgullas! Yes, it was that good and yes I remember the number because I was counting. This was it.. The moment of realization that this ultimate Cheese based, syrupy Bengali dessert could be made at home! Yes, it was possible! Thank you Madhu!

Ingredients:

Milk

1 Litre

Lemon juice

3 tbsp

Sugar

2 cups

Water

3.5 cups

Cardamom (Elachi) powder

1 pinch

Rose Water

1 tsp

Saffron Strands

5 – 10

Method:

Heat the milk and bring it to boil. Add the lemon juice and stir the milk. Boil it further till the milk curdles and a clear whey forms.

Sieve the milk using a cheese-cloth over a fine strainer. Wash the cheese with running water to ensure the lemony flavour is removed. Squeeze the cheese to ensure excess water is removed and knot the cheese in the cheesecloth and hang it for at least 30 minutes.

Knead the cheese into smooth and fine dough. This process will required around 10 - 15 minutes of continuous kneading.

Mix Sugar, water and cardamom powder in a pressure cooker and boil it till the sugar dissolves completely. Then, add the rose water and the strands of saffron.

While the sugar syrup is getting ready, make small balls from the cheese dough and add these into the sugar syrup.

Pressure cook the Rasgullas for one whistle in low flame and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Once the pressure has released in the cooker, open the lid. Transfer the Rasgullas to a bowl.

Refrigerate and serve them chilled, garnished with some pistachio nuts.

Notes:

The cheese will crumble when you remove it after 30 minutes in the cheesecloth.

Kneading the dough is the most important step of the process. Smooth dough is essential to ensure that the Rasgullas do not break when cooked.

Adding Rose water and saffron strands are optional steps and can be skipped.